1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connection structure for a power supply to a vehicle door for supplying electric power of a vehicle body to auxiliary members in a back door, etc., of an automobile, which can be downsized particularly by abolishing partition walls between female terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, various auxiliary members, such as a rear wiper motor, a defogger, a door lock, etc., are mounted on a back door of an automobile, and there have been proposed a number of connection structures for power supply to a vehicle door.
FIG. 9 shows a conventional connection structure for power supply to the vehicle door as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 57-47444 of an unexamined application. As shown in FIG. 9, a plurality of pin-like movable terminals 66 are provided on a back door 65 of a vehicle so as to be retractable by means of coil springs 67, and contact terminals 69 are provided on a vehicle body 68 so as to face with tip ends 66a of the movable terminals 66, respectively.
The movable terminals 66 are arranged in a row at a distance in an insulating housing 70. A forward portion of each of the movable terminals 66 projecting from the housing 70 is covered with an insulating holder 71 to expose only its tip end 66a. The holder 71 is slidably fitted in a bore 72 in the housing 70. The above mentioned coil spring 67 is disposed in the bore 72.
The contact terminals 69 are positioned in an insulating housing 73 between the partition walls 74. One (691) of the contact terminals 69 has a cancel switch mechanism 76 which is forced by a coil spring 75 so as not to contact with a contact when the door is open.
The tip ends 66a of the movable terminals 66 enter into a chamber 77 which is separated by the partition walls 74 and push the contact terminals 69. At the same time, the contact terminal 691 comes in contact with the contact 78 thereby to connect a power source side circuit 79 to a circuit of the auxiliary devices (not shown).
However, in the above described structure, the movable terminal 66 is apt to diametrically offset on occasion of the contact due to its long size, and it has been necessary to make an area of the contact terminal 69 and the distance between the movable terminals 66 larger in order to obtain a good contact even in such cases. For this reason, there has been a problem that the structure will be up-sized in a lateral direction (in a direction in which the terminals are arranged). In addition, it has been disadvantageous that the cancel switch mechanism 76 may be deteriorated in contactability when the contact 78 is tilted and offset and may cause a bad contact.
In view of the above described problems, it is an object of the invention to provide a connecting structure for power supply to a vehicle door in which upsizing in a direction of arranging a plurality of terminals when they are arranged in a row will be prevented, and which is compact and excellent in contactability.